Total knee replacement surgery in Singapore

Total Knee Replacement Surgery in Singapore - Who Needs it?

Although early osteoarthritis can be well managed by medication, physiotherapy and lifestyle modifications, total knee replacement surgery in Singapore remained the only option for those patients suffering from severe osteoarthritis (significant misalignment of the lower limbs, or intractable pain who failed to respond to conservative treatment).

How does Total Knee Replacement Surgery in Singapore Help You?

One of the main goals for total knee replacement surgery in Singapore is to restore the normal alignment of the lower limbs. The traditional techniques require a lot of visual judgement from the surgeons, which is prone to error and frequently leads to malalignment in up to 30% of the knee replacements; this significantly increases the risk of early implant failure as a result of accelerated wear and aseptic loosening.

Advanced Medical Technology

So with the advancement of the technology, we can now use computer navigations, 3d printing technology and even a robotic arm (Makoplasty) to help us perform total knee replacement surgery in Singapore in a more accurate and precise manners, improving surgical results without a significant increase in time.

Computer navigations had been used in various fields such as aviation, automobile and defence industries for decades, and it’s finally being brought into the surgical fields. Computer navigations involve the input of the “coordinates” of the lower limb – the anatomical landmarks of the ipsilateral hip joint centre, knee joint and ankle joint; into the computer system and there will be a real-time reflection of the placement of the cutting instruments. Verification of the cuts can be made to further enhance the accuracy. The kinematics of the knee joint can be studied as well and it allows fine-tuning of the soft tissue balance to achieve a well-functioning knee replacement.

3D Technology in Total Knee Replacement Surgery in Singapore

3D printing technology has revolutionised the industrial world in the past decade, and we can now use the 3D-printing technology in knee replacement surgery. Patients undergoing knee replacements using this technique will undergo a pre-op MRI scan of the lower limb – all the important data of the lower limb will be captured, and the alignment and the size of the implants will be pre-determined. These Patient Specific Instruments (PSI) will then be produced via 3D printers and subsequently sterilized, they will fit onto the patients’ knee joint anatomy perfectly and allow the surgeons to perform the knee replacements quickly and accurately.

Robotic Surgery for Greater Success

Robotic surgery is the new dimension in the future of surgery, makoplasty is a semi-automated robotic arm that will assist the surgeon in performing the total knee replacement surgery. Patients undergoing knee replacement using this technique will undergo a pre-op ct scan of the lower limb, all the important parameters in the lower limb are then captured and entered into the computer. These data will then merged with the real-life anatomical landmarks of the patient on the surgical table, and the surgeon can use this robotic arm to perform the knee replacement to pinpoint accuracy. There is a safety mechanism built into the robotic arm as well to minimize the risk of nerve or blood vessels injury.

Overall, these advanced technologies have greatly improved the accuracy and the surgical results of the total knee replacement surgery/ partial knee replacements in Singapore. And computer navigations/ PSI/ Makoplasty will be the recommended techniques in patients who had a previous injury to the same lower limb resulting in a deformed anatomy or patients who have variant anatomy such as severely bowing of femurs.

There are other benefits such as reduced blood loss, reduced risk of embolic events as well, mainly related to the avoidance of instrumentation of the medullary cavity of the bone used by the traditional techniques.